Taiwan A-Waste to Move to East Coast via California

Gov. Booth Gardner said today that the U.S. Department of Energy has decided against shipping high-level nuclear waste from Taiwan through Washington state and that it will be routed through California on its way to South Carolina.

A spokesman for the governor said energy officials have decided to use Long Beach as the primary port and Oakland as the secondary port to handle the waste.

The material involved is spent fuel rods from an experimental nuclear reactor in Taiwan.

Gardner said the Energy Department cited lower transportation costs and a shorter overland route to a processing plant in South Carolina as reasons for changing the shipping route to California.

Gardner got into the act last fall after he learned secondhand that the nuclear waste would be coming through Washington state.

“We were not happy that we had to hear about DOE plans from state officials in Oregon and that the decision-making process was already under way without anyone in our state even being consulted,” Gardner said.

When he learned of the federal plan last September, he selected several state officials to see if changes could be made.

“When we finally talked to DOE about the proposals, they were responsive to our concerns,” Gardner said. “Without our initial strong reaction to the plan, that waste may in fact have ended up coming through Washington.”